Mobile devices are commonly used to exchange messages in many forms. Among those forms are messages that use standard Short Message Service (SMS). SMS provides the capability to send and receive short alphanumeric messages to and from mobile devices. Another form of message may use the standard Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). MMS is a cellular communication standard that is used to transmit messages that include images, video, audio and other multi media objects. MMS is an extension of the SMS standard. Yet another type of messaging standard is Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS). EMS is based on standard SMS mechanisms. EMS takes advantage of the capability in SMS to include binary data in a Short Message (SM) before the text message itself. EMS provides the ability to send and receive objects such as sound, pictures, animation and formatted text. For the purpose of this disclosure, messages in SMS, MMS, EMS and similar formats are referred to as a Message Service Message (MSM).
Mobile service providers also provide a variety of services to their subscribers and utilize MSM as a way of communicating to their subscribers about these services. For example, a mobile service provider may offer ringtones and graphics that enable a subscriber to customize their wireless device to suit their tastes. Other services may include music downloads, games and a large number of applications such as mapping, traffic information, weather forecasts and sports reports.
The elements of a complete SMS (a type of MSM) message transaction include:                A header: identifies the type of message.        Service Center Timestamp        Originator Address: the phone number of the sender        Protocol Identifier        Data Coding Scheme        User Data Length: tells how long the message is        User Data: the message itself (140 bytes: 160 7-bit characters, or 140 8-bit characters).        
The originator's address is usually the senders telephone number, and in the case of a message sent by a service or application provider, it may be the network address of the provider. For example, an e-mail service provider may have the number 1010100028 as its network address. Typically, this address will be displayed in the mobile device display in the “From” field. However, the network address does not clearly communicate to the subscriber the identity of the sender of the message.
There is a need for a way to identify the network address of a sender with a name that the subscriber can recognize.